St Peter ad Vincula

About

St Peter's is the Grade I listed Anglican parish church of Threekingham, a village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, near Sleaford. It sits within the Church of England parish of South Lafford, in the Diocese of Lincoln. The church is dedicated to St Peter ad Vincula ("St Peter in Chains"), and its tall, elegant 14th-century broach spire is often reckoned among the finest of its kind in England.

Inside are two remarkable full-size 13th-century effigies of a knight and his lady, believed to be Sir Lambert de Trikyngham and his wife, who died around 1280 — he in chain mail and surcoat with his feet resting on a lion, she in a flowing gown with her feet on a hound. Threekingham's name, sometimes explained by folklore as the "home of the three kings" after three Danish kings supposedly buried nearby, actually derives from an Old English rendering of "Tric's people."

History

The Domesday Book of 1086 records a church here dedicated to St Peter — quite possibly a Saxon foundation, or even a Danish church built under Cnut near the site of a battle fought in 869. A charter issued by Henry II in 1154 records that Simon and Adelicia, Earl and Countess de Gant of nearby Folkingham, took sole possession of the Threekingham churches and passed them, with their other holdings, to the newly founded Leper House at Burton Lazars Monastery in Leicestershire.

Around 1170, construction began on a new church, most likely funded by the Gant family; the chancel and tower raised at that time still stand today, built in the Late Norman style. A small chapel was added to the north side of the chancel but was demolished in 1325, its stones reused to build the north aisle — the blocked former entrance to the chapel is still visible. The spire was added around 1270, and the nave was widened in the 14th century. The late-Norman font, dating from around 1200, carries the inscription "Ave Maria Gratia P(lena)" ("Hail Mary, full of grace").

As a once-prosperous medieval market town, Threekingham's wealth is reflected in the scale of its church, though the absence of a clerestory and the comparatively crude 14th-century roof structure hint at the decline that followed the Black Death. Little further major work was carried out until the Victorian era: the church was restored in 1859–60 at a cost of £550, when new pews and a pulpit were installed, funded by A. Heathcote Esq., and restored again thoroughly in 1880.

The spire has been struck by lightning on at least three recorded occasions, most notably in July 1871, when the top three feet and the weathervane were damaged and subsequently repaired.

St Peter's was designated a Grade I listed building on 1 February 1967. The church seats around 200 people.